Growth of gold-palladium alloy catalyzed gallium nitride nanowires by chemical vapour deposition

The growth of gallium nitride nanowires on c-plane sapphire substrates using binary catalytic alloy was investigated by manipulating growth time and precursor-to-substrate distance. The variations in structural, optical and morphological behaviour of the samples at different growth conditions were observed using X-ray diffractometer, cathodoluminescence spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. It was noticed that, thickness of the nanowires decreased with increase in growth time and precursor-to-substrate distance. Simultaneously, length of the nanowires increased with growth time and varied with precursor-to-substrate distance. The reduction in nanowire thickness was found to have a positive effect in improving luminescence property and bandgap of the grown nanowires. The results indicate that this material system can be catered for optoelectronic device applications. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.